Where the World of Work and Personal Life Intersects

Avoiding A PR Nightmare

Business can be a very difficult field to work in. In your career, you’ll spend a lot of your time trying to make people happy. From investors and customers to the government and legal authorities, there’s always someone to try and please. To make this easier for yourself, you only have to adopt some basic principles. But, it’s impossible to know what to do without a little bit of help. So, to help you to avoid a PR nightmare, this post will be going through three of the biggest areas you should be considering. Most of this work is basic ethics and morality, so you should already be on your way there. If you want examples of what not to do – it does not take much to find dozens of example while searching on the Internet. Hopefully this post will help you avoid this.

Follow The Rules

As you would expect, there are loads of different rules which surround business and finance. Money has to be moved in the right way, while you also have to make sure you’re not breaking any rules in your trade. Failing to cover yourself in this area can have some very serious results. For example, a lot of people don’t realize that they could go to court if they fail to pay their taxes correctly. Eventually, this could even result in prison.

Any legal issue, from a personal injury suit to a full-blown fraud trial, will negatively impact the way customers view your company. When this happens, it can be very hard to build your reputation back up, often hurting your company in the long run. To solve this issue, you just need some advice. There are loads of companies out there which are dedicated to helping small businesses to make sure that they have all of their compliance in order. Without this protection, you could find yourself in a lot of trouble without the help to get out of it. So, it’s worth making sure you work hard to find the best help you can.

Work With The Right People

Customers, clients, and the general population expect companies to be as transparent about their work as they can be. As a part of this, a lot of companies will have to release details of the other people that they work with. If you work with a criminal or strong political figure, the impact on your business will be huge. Customers will almost certainly find out, and, even if it was an accident, will lose a lot of trust in your company. A great example of this can be found in Hugo Boss, who were responsible for making thousands of German Nazi uniforms. Even today, it’s hard for the designer label to escape this brand.

When working with others, you should always have an idea of their background before you start. To achieve this, you can start by simply asking them what they have done in the past. Along with this, though, you should also do some research. A simple Google search of someone’s name can reveal a lot about them. Any news stories or important social media posts will show up first, enabling you to make sure they’re safe. Along with this, though, identity verification can assist you in mitigating the security risk that identity fraud bring. There are loads of tools out there offering this sort of resource. So, it’s worth having a look around.

Treat Customers And Employees Correctly

Finally, it’s time to think about the way that you treat people. Starting with your employees, you should always be working to make sure that everyone is happy. The people working for you will always make a huge difference to your business. Without them, you wouldn’t be able to work very well at all. Along with this, though, you customers are also another group which make you operations possible, as you couldn’t make money without them. A lot of small business make the mistake of taking this for granted.

If you treat these people badly, though, the public will no doubt find out. It’s becoming increasingly common for people to share their bad experiences with companies online. In this sort of case, even if an incident isn’t your fault, it can be very hard to avoid the impact it brings. To stop this issue before it ever exists, you just have to make sure everyone is treated well and professionally. Always make sure responses to customers are swift, and that you listen to those working for you.

Hopefully, this post will give you a good idea of the work that can be done to avoid issues with your public relations in the future. A lot of companies ignore this area, thinking they’re too small to be affected by the risks. But, in reality, no one is too small to be impacted by the effects of bad press.

Published by Chantal Bechervaise

I blog about everything surrounding the world of work and how it intersects with personal life. Topics include: HR, Leadership, Social Media, Technology, Work-Life Balance, Employee Engagement, Workplace Culture and Achieving Success and Happiness.
It is all about your own personal balance and what is appropriate for you.
I also love the outdoors and reconnecting with nature.
View all posts by Chantal Bechervaise